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Sunday, 17 April 2011

Dramatic Ballet Inspired Look

I’m quite into my ballet at the moment – ballet classes (I just started going to classes once a week in Jan and I love it!), fluffy tutu-esque shorts, and of course, ballet-inspired make-up!

Don’t get me wrong, I’m no dancer so I don't actually have any idea about real ballet make-up, but I have been known to go the theatre on occasion and I am slightly in love with the romance of ballet so this is just my interpretation of a ballet look. I thought that the peachy tones in the Sleek Paraguaya palette would be perfect for coming up with a dramatic cats eye look inspired by prima ballerinas that might also work as an evening look too (if you’re quite brave with your make-up!)

my profile shot

me looking rather angry…he he. I was trying to get a shot of the colours on my eyelids.

I think dancers often wear false lashes, but I usually can’t be bothered with them so I just caked mine with loads of mascara instead.

Look how few eyelashes I have!! Never mind, who cares now that there are plenty of good volumising mascaras out there!

The key products I used – the Sleek i-divine palette in Paraguaya, a bright pink blush and a bronze coloured lipgloss pencil.

Here’s how I created this look step-by-step:

I used a cream-based primer on my lid then patted Cameo all over the lid up to the crease then blended it out slightly above the crease. I also took this colour all the way along my lower lash line.

I applied Sandstone as a highlight underneath my brow bone and down and around to the inner corner of my eyes.

I then used applied the darkest shade Stone into the outer 1/3 of my crease and along my lash line and blended well into the Cameo. I also took the brown 2/3 along my lower lash line.

I used loads of eyeliner along the outer 2/3 of my upper lash line, extending it out into a huge flick, and whacked on a ton of mascara on my upper lashes. I have hardly any lower lashes so I never bother with them.

Continuing in a theatrical vein I then applied loads of bright pink blush along my cheekbones and over my temples. On the stage the bright lighting tends to bleach out colours so theatrical make-up can be applied with a heavy hand, and since this was a ballet-inspired look I thought, what the heck! Actually as you can see from the photos it doesn't look like I'm wearing that much blush because I used a flash which can have a similar effect of bleaching colours out.

I used a glossy bronze lip pencil all over my lips. I think the colour that I used is quite nice and noticable without being too dramatic.

I then brushed a teeny bit of concealer under my eyes just to increase the contrast between the colours of the eyeshadow and my skin and finished off with a light dusting of loose powder.

Then all that was left for me to do was to pout for my close-ups! Hope you like this look. I actually really like it so I might try out some variations in different colours too.